UW regents approve 2013 budget and tuition increase

The University of Washington Board of Regents on Thursday (June 7) adopted the universitys operating budget for fiscal 2013, including a 16 percent increase in undergraduate resident tuition.

With this increase, the UW tuition and fees will be $12,401, close to the average of the university’s peer institutions. When the state Legislature last year adopted its biennial appropriation for the UW, containing substantial budget reductions, it assumed that tuition would increase 16 percent in autumn 2012.

The UW will allocate 30 percent of the incremental revenue increase for financial aid. This will ensure that the 8,500 low-income resident undergraduates will continue to pay no tuition and fees next year, preserving the Husky Promise program. In addition, 2,000 middle-income students will see increases in their grant awards to help mitigate the impacts of the tuition increase.

A total of $10 million will be directed to support undergraduate education through increased tutoring, expanded student support services, the hiring of more teaching assistants and increasing access to “gateway” courses in biology, mathematics, chemistry, physics and English, to ensure that students can graduate on time.

The UW also will spend an additional $3.8 million to expand enrollment in computer science and engineering.

Even with the tuition increase, total state and tuition funding per student will be $3,000 lower than it was in 2008.

State funding for the UW has decreased by nearly 50 percent since 2009. The most recent legislative session did not result in additional major cuts to higher education, but it did not restore any of the funding that was cut a year ago from the biennial budget.

The university’s budget recommendations were developed in consultation with a variety of stakeholders, including faculty and students.